It was after the floods in southeast Louisiana and Mississippi in May of 1995, that I fully understood that the people, grassroots, did not have a mechanism in place to help the government and other agencies reach our community. - Chief Warhorse

The CPRN-Community Preparedness Response Network has become fully a personal project starting with the 1995 flood. I began to put in place a community-based network to run drills, help people to do paperwork and be prepared before a disaster.

The organizing is based in grassroots people preparing themselves for a disaster that could last 30 to 60 days. This has grown to network that can use traditional knowledge and techniques along with modern technology to have 120 days or more of preparedness.

Prior to CPRN, there was no grassroot program in St. Tammany Parish, or in the state of Louisiana, for dealing with disaster preparedness in the communities. All disaster preparedness was based off military preparedness.

I began to design a more domestic and historic way for this program, which has been used in FEMA Region 6 and in Region 4 as a pattern to help people in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma in recovery and for services during disasters.

After Hurricane Katrina, I was asked for the Chahta Tribe to help the state to get more people and communities to be better prepared for disasters. We were then asked to step in and help with Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Gustav and so forth. 

We have worked every hurricane disaster leading up to the coronavirus pandemic. We had already had our pandemic-influenza outbreak training in place for over 15 years. Since 2006, there have been many state, federal, private and government agencies that have partnered with the CPRN to reach low-income communities in hard-to-reach places.

I have received an award from Mississippi FEMA in appreciation for the work provided them for FEMA and MEMA. We have a CPRN satellite office in Mississippi to help the tribe assist in these communities. 

We also have a disaster preparedness satellite office in Arkansas, in case of a disaster or evacuation. We have a mobile office for Louisiana, and we have a mobile office for Mississippi. We have paid out-of-pocket for almost 98% or our preparedness.

The Community Preparedness Response Network is part of the way of life of the Chahta Tribe, to look after our members and the community at large, as well as the surrounding communities who need our help and assistance.

Peace and preparedness,

Chief Elwin “Warhorse” Gillum